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Price blitz
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-33
Monday August 20th 2007 - Sunday August 26th 2007
August 30, 2007

Like the previous week, the government media avoided interrogating government's messy implementation of its price-cutting campaign. Their 79 reports on the matter (ZBC [28] and official Press [51]) failed to question why the authorities appeared to have abandoned the exercise, as indicated by government approving price increases instead. Neither did they interpret the policy turnaround as an admission of its disastrous effects on the availability of products and services. Otherwise, they continued to gloss over the negative effects of the blitz.

It was against this background that ZTV (20/8, 8pm) and The Herald (21/8) did not view government's nullification of the Cold Storage Company monopoly in the supply of meat barely two months after it rigorously defended the company's ability to meet national requirements as an indication of the confusion plaguing the exercise. Instead, the two passively announced that Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu had re-registered 42 abattoirs "in an effort to improve the supply of beef in the market". No information was given detailing the criteria used to do this. Similarly, there was no attempt to test the viability of the new government-sanctioned price increases in ensuring availability of goods and services.

The Herald (23/8) merely quoted economist Emmanuel Chinyaukira hailing the increases as "one step close to . . . removing controls", while The Sunday Mail (26/8) described them as "noble" saying the "empty shelves are not a reflection of shortages in Zimbabwe, but of a boycott by business, which feels its profits have been slashed too much to inspire them to remain productive".

In the same vein, The Herald (23/8) did not query government's selectivity in approving fares for its public transport companies while criminalising increases by private bus operators, some of whom have been fined or jailed for 'illegally' hiking their fares.

Instead, The Herald (23/8) and Spot FM (24/8, 8am) simplistically celebrated the drop in the monthly inflation rate for July as an effect of the "price controls" while suffocating the implications on the rise in annual inflation to 7,634% during the same month.

The official media's lopsided coverage was mirrored by their use of those outside government to reinforce the official position. See Fig 5 and 6.

Fig. 5 Voice distribution of the government Press

Fig. 6 Voice distribution on ZBC

Only the private media continued to discuss the negative effects of the crackdown and exposed government's policy contradictions. For example, the Zimbabwe Independent (24/8) noted that government's reversal of the "unrealistic" prices amounted to a "major climb down after the programme backfired". The Standard (26/8) similarly observed that government was now in "reverse mode" after realizing its "miscalculation", adding that the re-licensing of private abattoirs was aimed at covering up its "embarrassment".

The private media queried the criteria used to re-licence private abattoirs with Studio 7 (21/8) and Zimonline (24/8) quoting unnamed sources claiming discrimination in the issuing of the new licences, saying they were being given to those linked to senior government officials "while white-owned businesses have been excluded".

However, the two reported vice-chairperson of the Cabinet prices taskforce, Elliot Manyika, dismissing the claims as "rubbish", adding the "abattoirs had met the requirements".

Studio 7(22/8) and the Independent quoted analysts dismissing the significance of the drop in monthly inflation. For example, Studio 7 quoted economist John Robertson saying although the decline might be interpreted by government as mirroring the effectiveness of its prices blitz, "the real prices people are paying for goods that have been made scarce by the operation suggest inflation may be running much higher".

The private media's sourcing patterns are shown in Figs 7 and 8.

Fig. 7 Voice distribution of the private Press

Fig. 8 Voice distribution on the private electronic media

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